Since August 2011,Schumaker has found a consistent, approximately 35km-longcrescent-shaped slick of oil in an area 19 kilometersnortheast of BP’s Macondo well [Erika Blumenfeld/Al Jazeera]

The pilot, Bonny Schumaker, aretired career physicist with NASA, now the owner and pilot of “On Wings of Care”, (from their website: “nonprofit charitable organization dedicated to the protection and preservation of wildlife, wild habitat, and natural ecosystems; to the sustainable coexistence of them with humans and domestic animals; and to the humane care of domestic animals.” ), took photographers out to observe the continued seepage, the lack of visable marine life and the poor clarity of the water still experienced in the Gulf over 2 years after the explosion.

From the Al Jazeera article covering the flight and their subsequent investigation:

New Orleans attorney Stuart Smith, who litigates against major oil companies, believes the burden of proof on the oil’s origins lies with BP. “Our worst fears have proven true. We have a chronic leak scenario caused by the Macondo well, and it is time for the Feds and BP to come clean and tell the American public the truth. Unless/until the government and BP explain in a verifiable manner what the source of this oil is, in my opinion any thoughts of settlement are way premature”

The toll of the spill – to property, environment, and economy – is in the tens of billions of dollars – but what about the toll on the health and lives of the people of the Gulf Coast?

As reported by Al Jazeera , October 27, 2013, the toxic effects of the crude in the water (and BP’s dispersants), in the fish, in the wetlands, and to the people who live, work and clean up after BP, are being felt and it isn’t pretty:

New Orleans, United States of America – Peter Frizzell never thought his watersports off the coast of Florida would destroy his health.

“After sea kayaking after BP’s spill happened, I was sitting at my desk and started coughing up loads of blood,” Frizzell, an avid outdoorsman, told Al Jazeera. “My doctor ran a scope down to the top of my lungs and said my bronchi were full of blood.”

Frizzell’s medical records bear out that he was exposed to toxic chemicals, and he is far from alone.

Since the spill began in April 2010, Al Jazeera has interviewed hundreds of coastal residents, fishermen, and oil cleanup workers whose medical records, like Frizzell’s, document toxic chemical exposure that they blame on BP’s oil and the toxic chemical dispersants the oil giant used on the spill.

The US Center for Disease Control and Prevention lists the toxic components commonly found in chemicals in crude oil, and several of these chemicals have been found in the blood of people living in the impact zone of BP’s disaster.

Several toxicologists agree, and now one accuses both BP and the US Environmental Protection Agency of knowingly placing people in harms way since they both had prior knowledge of the harmful effects of the oil and dispersants….

“BP told the public that Corexit was ‘as harmless as Dawn dishwashing liquid’,” Dr Susan Shaw, of the State University of New York, told Al Jazeera. “But BP and the EPA clearly knew about the toxicity of the Corexit dispersants long before this spill.”

Shaw, a toxicologist in the university’s School of Public Health, has been studying the health effects of chemical exposure for 30 years. She is also the president and founder of the Marine Environmental Research Institute, and explained that BP’s Material Safety Data Sheets for Corexit warned that the dispersant posed high and immediate human health hazards.

“Five of the Corexit ingredients are linked to cancer, 33 are associated with skin irritation from rashes to burns, 33 are linked to eye irritation, 11 are or are suspected of being potential respiratory toxins or irritants, and 10 are suspected kidney toxins,” she added. “BP’s own testing found that workers were exposed to a possible human carcinogen from the dispersant.

“We predicted with certainty the widespread human health crisis we are seeing in the Gulf today,” Shaw said.

It seems there is more evidence of the toxic effects to those who have lived, worked and played in the Gulf since the spill…A new study released by Houston’s University Cancer and Diagnostic Centers and reported in the American Journal of Medicine indicates that the blood tests of workers, involved in the clean up, show altered blood profiles that put them at risk for developing leukemia, liver cancer and a variety of painful, nasty disorders..

It indicates that the problem was made exponentially worse by BP’s use of Corexit dispersants.

According to Dr Shaw, thousands of people in the Gulf – clean-up workers, fishermen, residents – have now reported multiple severe symptoms related to chemical exposure from the spill.

“What ties them together as a group is their spill-related health problems, which are also typical of the health problems reported from previous oil spills,” she said. “Some of these include: blood in urine, heart palpitations, kidney damage, liver damage, migraines, multiple chemical sensitivity, neurological damage, memory loss, rapid weight loss, respiratory system damage, skin lesions, muscle spasms, seizures, and temporary paralysis.”

And the response….

The response….

Still waiting for the response…..

BP…

EPA….

ANYBODY?!?!

For New Orleans and the Gulf, the BP gift of toxicity just keeps on giving…..

But, BP said it was all better. They made a commercial and everything!

mea_mark

If we don’t wipe ourselves out as a civilization, we will look back on this tragedy for many decades as one of those really stupid tragedies that didn’t have to happen and we made worse by bungling the clean-up.

tiredoftea

But, think of all the great monster movies that will come out of this! A whole new Toxic Avenger series and new life to Swamp Thing and Adrienne Barbeau’s career!

Pssst NO. Hi. 😉 I’ve been meaning to ask for the longest time if you used to post as Irony_101? In case it’s a secret or something, I have my profile locked for just now and will erase this query after you’ve answered 1. for yes 2. for no. lol.

As for me, I used to post as JJ1 before the trolls at MMFA sort of forced me to abandon it by downthumbing not just me, but those that replied to me. It was quite the campaign. At one juncture I had a post with 52 thumbs down. And not for substantive reasons, of course. It was just a brute show of force. I guess I done ticked some bunny off. 😉

Anyway, regardless if you are, in fact, the” used to be” irony_101, I enjoy your posts. But I do miss that guy. We used to share a lot of fun. Sorry for the cloak and dagger routine, I just felt a tad burned after having to give up the moniker I had for almost 7 years. It had sentimental value.

Tracey Bates

And what do you see when you pass every BP station…at least a dozen cars. I have not and will not buy BP products, EVER! The people who have ignored this huge eco blunder are saying what BP did was fine and no big deal. Shame on You…maybe you need to see the destruction first hand, as obviously the devastating pictures that have been broadcast on tv and the web have had no influence on you. The thing is…this kind of behavior will be repeated, if not by BP, than some other corporation. Why not, if people still buy your products.